Ten

Ten

Bridgend, South Wales. 23rd April 2023. Dear Ziggy, Now you are 10. A decade. I find myself experiencing a particularly curious sensation of being able to distinctly recall exactly where I was at this point ten years ago, almost down to the minute. It is like standing...
Nine

Nine

Bridgend, South Wales. 23rd April 2022 Dear Ziggy, Today you are nine. Should be nine. Would have been nine. Tenses are hard. Another year has passed by like a gust of wind and the world seemingly spins further into chaos as the pandemic sputters on, while war creeps...
Oubliette

Oubliette

Oubliette: A Tale of Draco The Dragon By Neil Beynon For Ziggy on his fifth birthday. We, a pair of apes, are sitting on a shell of rock, heated by molten metal, spinning round a flaming ball of gas, being flung through the universe at four hundred and ninety thousand...
Nine

Five

Bridgend, South Wales 23rd April 2018 Dear Ziggy, You should be five today. We should be putting balloons on the doors, making a cake and inviting your friends round for a party and bemoaning the fact your birthday is on a Monday this year. I should be telling your...
Oubliette

The Canyon

The Canyon: A Tale of Draco the Dragon By Neil Beynon For Ziggy on his 4th birthday. There are places where the space between the worlds grows thin, like parchment stretched too far. If you have ever walked across an empty beach and watched the waves break; if...
Nine

Four

Bridgend, South Wales 23rd April 2017 Dear Ziggy, Today, you should be turning four – happy birthday, cariad. We wish you were here to spend it with us. We miss you. It’s a year since we last spoke. We are still in the house we bought a few weeks before your...